Sen. Grace Poe delivers a privilege speech during the plenary session on Monday, Dec. 12, 2022, on the perennial problems experienced by local and foreign travelers at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport. (Photo from the Senate Public Relations and Information Bureau)
MANILA, Philippines — The implementing rules and regulations (IRR) for the SIM Registration Act, which was released by the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC), have a “vague verification process,” Sen. Grace Poe said in a statement issued on Monday.
Poe praised the NTC for its work on the IRR.
“However,” she said, “we note with grave concern the vague verification process under the said IRR. The importance of having a verification process cannot be emphasized enough — it serves as the first line of defense against the misuse of our mobile telecommunication systems to perpetrate national security threats and identity theft in the case of end-users.”
Still, she was hopeful that the NTC would come up with more guidelines.
“In order to facilitate the immediate implementation of the law, we are constrained to trust the assurances given by the Technical Working Group who drafted the IRR that the NTC will continuously issue the necessary guidelines to guide the telcos in the performance of their duties under the law, particularly specifying the processes for verifying submitted information,” she said.
The process may include in-platform facial validation, which is already used in the Philippines by applications like GCash and in other countries like Singapore for SIM registration.
With this, Poe vowed that Congress would continue its “oversight functions” in monitoring the strict implementation of the law.
“This law was created precisely to stomp down the proliferation of fraud and crime in the communications system. We will not allow for it to be another avenue for the commission of fraud and identity theft,” she said.
She urged telecommunication companies to invest in their platforms to make the implementation of the law as safe and as accessible as possible.
The SIM Registration Act, which was signed by President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. last Oct 10, aims to reduce anonymous mobile phone-based scams and other criminal activities.